Michigan MBL CUSO Growth Leads to New Hires, Promotions

With loan volume growth doubling in 2012 and continuing into 2013, business lending CUSO Michigan Business Connection LLC has made several key personnel moves to keep up with the pace.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based CUSO said it has hired Stephanie Alstott as a documentation specialist. She has more than 10 years of commercial banking and construction administration experience, according to MBC.

Additionally, as part of its ongoing internship partnership with Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., MBC has hired finance major Othniel Maidaniuc as a part-time financial analyst.

Through the internship program, interns perform hands-on financial analysis and support duties such as preparing financial assessments of business financial capability and cash flows, MBC said.

MBC also announced new roles for CUSO employees Allen Mitchell and Jacqueline Craig.

Mitchell most recently served as a portfolio manager and will now serve as a business development officer. In his new role, Mitchell will work with businesses and real estate investors primarily in northern Oakland, Genesee and Saginaw counties in Michigan to arrange financing and introductions to credit unions.

Craig, a former EMU student intern, has been promoted to a financial analyst at MBC, which is a fulltime position that supports credit underwriting and portfolio management groups at MBC.

“These personnel moves are a reflection of our continued growth and the positive steps credit unions have taken with business financing in Michigan,” said Bill Beardsley, president of MBC.

“We’ve helped these credit unions share the cost and risk of nearly a half billion dollars of business and commercial real estate loans made to Michigan business owners. Our loan volume doubled in 2012 and has continued to grow in 2013,” Beardsley added.

Since 2004, MBC said, it has supported the state of Michigan’s small and medium-sized businesses and real estate investors by underwriting, originating and servicing commercial loans for financial institutions statewide.

The CUSO said it serves more than two dozen credit unions throughout Michigan and manages more than $250 million of loan assets.